Meet Cayla

I am a midlevel anesthesia provider called a "CAA"- so I put people to sleep for surgery.  Getting people through their most vulnerable moments is a privilege. 

All that training went out the window when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  It's so different when it's you.  In one of my first visits with the oncologist I had to ask her to forget my profession and talk to me like a kindergartener, and maybe draw some pictures :).  Your brain just doesn't work right when you're in shock. 

You can't measure or understand how badly you want a family until it's being threatened.  Chemo was that threat for me! We had one daughter at the time of diagnosis- she was one and we were trying for a second.  It was crushing to know that she may not have a mom, or a sibling- but she WILL have a mom AND a sibling!  

When I was first diagnosed, I wish that I would have known that it will take time from the moment you’re diagnosed to your first form of treatment.  I was so caught up in racing to surgery that I didn’t take much time to carefully weigh my options.  You feel like you don’t have time, but you probably have a little more than you think….. not forever, but you don’t need to feel like you need to make big decisions within hours.